Mr. Niall Cussen:

I thank the committee members for their good questions. Senator Boyhan's point about the Dublin housing supply and co-ordination task force is valid. It is important for the work of the Department that we have a survey of lands that are available for development, have planning permission and so on. The report he mentioned concluded that approximately 26,000 homes in the Dublin area have the benefit of planning permission and a further 20,000 homes worth of land is infrastructurally unconstrained and available for development after that. It is important to remember in whose hands those lands lie in terms of being capable of having development carried out, not being financially impaired, etc.

From the analysis we carried out, it is notable that many of the extant permissions are quite old permissions and very often subject to extensions of duration. They are coming to the end of their lives. Our legislation is borne of the following question. Having been through a development plan process that identified lands as being suitable for residential development in principle in the first place, that taking two years, very often local area plans fleshing out that broad principle in a lot of detail in terms of where the open space is, how the access will be provide, etc., taking a year or 18 months on top of that, as well as the previous permissions on that site, etc., will we still have a process that takes a year, 18 months or longer to effectively refresh or renew those permissions, having been through a load of detail already?

This is a point that comes back very clearly from the industry in terms of the need to continually refresh the permissions and ensure they are attuned to the requirements of the housing market and people who need homes. There are all sorts of changes in terms of design, etc. The planning process at the moment does not distinguish between that and any other planning application - one is back to square 1. We are in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis. We were obviously keen to see if there was a mechanism whereby we could speed up that process of renewing those permissions and ensuring they were in tune with current requirements and so on.

The Senator made a very good point about Kilternan-Glenamuck. We are acutely aware of the very significant tranche of land available there. He is correct in his calculations of the cumulative impact of the development contributions. The implication of that for the viability of development is plain for all to see, particularly in the context of Central Bank macro-prudential lending rules and what most typical households can afford. As Mr. David Walsh pointed out, this is a function of the elected members in the context of the preparation and adoption of those development-contribution schemes.

In this particular one the development contributions are so high, particularly relating to the roads and other elements, because in effect the local authority has had to factor in a very significant amount of land acquisition cost in the context of putting together estimates for the provision of the infrastructure. Obviously the cost of developing distributor roads and so forth runs to more than the cost of the concrete and tarmac, and also incorporates the cost of the land on which the infrastructure sits. As the Senator well knows that is probably one of the most valuable areas of real estate in the country.

I reassure the committee that this is an issue of which the local authorities and the Department are acutely aware. It is being worked on with the landowners in the context of an alternate arrangement. Rather than the circular arrangement of having a very large contribution which collects a whole load of money, which pays for compulsory acquisition of land which goes back to the developers, could we not have a far simpler system whereby, in effect, the land is proffered at a very low cost or nominal cost and obviously the reduction that would enable would be reflected in terms of the development contribution and so on?

However, there are a number of technical issues relating to the development of that land, the relocation of a 220 kV overhead power line, the development of the stricture road effectively sitting in the footprint of that power line, old landfill and other issues that have to be dealt with in that context in terms of excavations and so on. That is a very active area of investigation and assessment, involving the housing delivery office, the local authority, etc., as well as EirGrid and ESB Networks.

I hope we will get a breakthrough on that shortly because it is a key block of land and progressing it is very important. Land cost is the main reason the contribution is so high but developers are now engaged in finding an alternative way to deal with it.

Mr. Walsh dealt with some of the other questions, including those related to the interest cost. When the conventional pillar banks are not in a position to lend to developers to acquire sites which do not have planning permission, developers have to have recourse to mezzanine or senior debt funders who have a much higher rate of interest than providers of pure development finance. Housing providers on the ground emphasise that, once a site is acquired, the meter is running on the interest cost.

A question was asked about our data on ready-to-go sites. Members will be familiar with Myplan.ieand the Dublin housing task force site viewer, which has a comprehensive database of all lands that are zoned for development, have planning permission or are active and waiting a response. We do not constantly monitor sites which are going for sale but we monitor broad trends on site sales in the commercial press. In the loan portfolio sales we are seeing an increasing supply of sites and strategic development zones, STZs, moving into new ownership.

Deputy Ó Broin asked a very good question about research into requests for further information. We maintain a constant overview of general patterns and trends in local authorities and are constantly looking at cases which come to our attention in the course of our interaction with local authorities. I am a professional planner and I maintain constant contact with all my colleagues in the Dublin local authorities and across the country. Getting everybody around the table, not just planners and architects but roads people, parks people, Irish Water people and all the various players, can be challenging but it is crucial for getting a comprehensive picture of the factors that will be taken into account in the determination of a planning application. Some of those challenges are not met as effectively as they should be and there is a subliminal sense that where one has the facility to deal with or to clarify a request for further information, the application can be let go and we can get the views of the public. However, most large applications go through the clarification of further information process, and there are some very interesting dates among the 15 or 18 cases the board has brought to our attention in 2016. These are not only single requests but multiples and if all this transpires in the course of a planning application it begs the question of what the preplanning application process and the consultation process were about. The discipline inherent in the board having to make a straight decision to grant or refuse forces a big focus, early in the preapplication process, on getting all the stakeholders around the table to ascertain the parameters that will be important in the context of the determination of the application.

The Deputy also asked a question about research into or evidence regarding preapplication consultation requests. We have issued two circulars in the past couple of years, particularly in the context of the Dublin housing task force, in which we emphasised that we would like to see preapplication consultation requests turned around within a fortnight. Despite the circulars, we are constantly getting feedback from practitioners and others who prepare planning applications, such as architects, engineers, planners etc., that many local authorities are struggling to achieve this.